Afghanistan appoints career diplomat Najibullah Alikhil as new ambassador to Pakistan 

PESHAWAR: The Afghan government named a career diplomat, Najibullah Alikhil, as its new ambassador to Pakistan on Thursday, the Afghan foreign ministry has said.
Alikhil takes charge at a time when key intra-Afghan talks between the Kabul government and the Afghan Taliban are about to begin. Pakistan is considered key in arranging the dialogue.
“The Afghan government appointed ambassadors to posts in 13 World capitals,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “Najibullah Alikhil was nominated as the new Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Islamabad, Pakistan.”
Alikhil, who is fluent in Dari, Pashto, English and Russian, brings with him 28 years of experience working with the Afghan ministry of foreign affairs and since March 2016 was Director General of Security Cooperation and Border Affairs at the ministry. He has served as Afghan envoy in Turkmenistan and Hungary and as a non-resident ambassador to Romania.
Alikhil replaces Atif Mashal who resigned in July this year, citing “personal reasons.”
“Unlike political appointees, Alikhil is a career diplomat with rich diplomatic experience,” said Hikmat Safi, a former adviser to Abdullah Abdullah who leads the High Council for National Reconciliation. “I believe his appointment will bring the two neighbors closer to mend their fraught ties.”
In recent months, Islamabad and Kabul have been involved in a diplomatic row over what both sides claim is harassment of diplomatic staff at their respective high commissions.
Last October, Afghanistan shut down its consulate in Peshawar over the removal of the Afghan national flag by Pakistani authorities from a disputed marketplace, which Kabul said belongs to Afghanistan.